Contacted Westerville Schools

Last week I contacted Westerville Schools to see if they would be able to provide any addititional speech therapy for Adam since we are in the district.    As I was emailing the lady I had spoken to about it last year, I was thinking how speech is usually done during the school day and chances would be slim.  I kind of would have preferred the response to be that but I for some reason the response I got rubbed me the wrong way.  "Since your son is not registered in and attending Westerville City Schools, the district is not able to provide services for him".   

Quick, to the point, and no apologies.  I'm just a little overly sensitive, I guess. 

Progress Report time

Today we had our parent/teacher conference to go over Adam's Fall progress report.  In a word, Adam is doing great!  They really didn't have a bad thing to say and he is right on track with everything. Yay!  The couple of journal entries we got to see were fantastic!  He's trying really hard to sound everything out and spell and the stories were entertaining.  The only thing was that in some of his journal entries he would write "w" instead of "r" because that's how he hears himself.  Same thing with "sh" and "ch" which he is working on in speech.  They said he has started to hang out with more of the kids (instead of Will who he seemed to be obsessed with at the beginning of the year and who may be a bit of a bully) and that he is very empathetic. 

During our conference, Adam went to CASE (they had people to watch the kids at school so you could go to your conference without having to find a babysitter for 1/2 an hour).  Adam thought it was the best and did not want to leave.  He watched a movie and was about to play video games when we picked him up.  He has been asking to go to CASE after school because some of his friends go and I had to explain that it was for kids whose parents weren't home after school and needed someone to watch them.  BUT - he really wanted to sign up for an after school activity that starts in January called "Science, Science, Science!". He will get to spend a little time in CASE before the activity starts.  He is soo excited! 
 
We also got a progress report from his speech teacher (which he has had maybe 3 times).  She said he is producing the "ch" sound about 70% of the time (the goal is 90%).  It was pretty amazing to me because the first week he worked on "ch", he brought home a little book to read/practice.  He really sounded like he was saying "sh" and I would try to help him and he got frustrated.  The next time he had speech, he came home with another little book and it sounded really good!  We never had that quick of a change when were at Columbus Speech and Hearing. Unfortunately in the progress report it said,

"Additional speech and language services are recommended outside of school at least once per week, to promote mastery of identified phoneme productions to improve his overall speech intelligibility in the classroom and across settings."

Looks like we may be going back to CSH.  :(  

Adam had a hearing screening at school about a week ago.  We got a letter from the nurse suggesting a trip to the ENT for a hearing test because he had issues at 20b, 1000, and 4000.  We are used to seeing the 4000 but the other 2 were a surprise. So I wrote to the nurse an email about our journey since last summer's dog toy incident. I let her know he just had a hearing test in August that came back within normal limits and that he has collapsing ear canals when head phones are used (and he had a cold last week- not sure if that would affect it but just in case).  She said she would put the email with all the info I wrote in his file and no need for another test. :)  I am getting a copy of the audiologists report from St. Louis just so we have it for our files.  All they had sent was a letter saying within normal limits.  

Adam requested

I think that's about all the excitement here!  

 

Birthday celebration at school

Dave and I went to Adam's school yesterday to read a book and share a snack with the class.  At first we were going to read a Piggie and Gerald book.  Then Adam said he wanted to read a book that Dave did so that he could say "Illustrated by Dave Aikins - my Dad!".  Soo cute! So that's what we did!  Mrs. Terwin said Dave "earned some super cool points with the class!"  The apple chips I made were a big hit with (most of) the kids as well!  It was towards the end of the day and all they had left was recess and dismissal.  We asked Adam if he wanted us to stay and take him home, if he wanted to skip recess and go home, or we leave and he take the bus home.  He chose have us stay while he played at recess then take him home.  So we got to go outside and watch him run around with his friends.  A couple of the girls in his class came up and hugged us goodbye. Sweet!

Dave figured out that Adam was mostly upset on his birthday by the fact that he didn't get to unwrap as many presents (because the Skylanders figures were all in little bags).  Dave had a couple other "back-up" gifts that he wrapped that Adam could have after he wrote his thank you notes.  After unwrapping those, Adam went down to the basement and told Dave they were the best birthday presents ever!  Peace has been restored.  (And the majority of gifts remain in their boxes on the floor since it's really the unwrapping that's the best part.)

Happy 6th Birthday!

So the day started off with Dave going to Schneiders bakery at 3 am to get Adam some fresh birthday donuts.  When Adam got up, he was excited about the donuts but I said he had to have some real food before them.  While eating his breakfast, he found that Dave had installed Minecraft on the iPad.  No donuts were eaten and off to school Adam went.

I went to school at 11:20 to have lunch with Adam.  Talk about a quick lunch!  I had to tell Adam to not talk so much because I was afraid he wouldn't have time to eat.  I really enjoyed walking him back to his classroom and talking to his classmates. They are adorable!  One of them is the son of Jason Singleton, a former OSU basketball player.  I was asking him how his football game went on Sunday (his mom said it was his flag football team's Superbowl Sunday so he couldn't go to Adam's party). He said they did good and they won and, 'Do you know my Dad?"  Ha ha!  I said I recognized the last name (and honestly, I thought dad was a football player.  I had to Google him.) Cute!  Then another girl heard me say something about a game (referring to the flag football game) and asked if I saw the volleyball game. It was the last of the season!  Then she did a cheer she learned.  GO VIKES! 

When I got home, Dave and I shared some donuts.  Then I remembered Adam had wanted the stick one that we ate.  Oops!  Needless-to-say, when Adam got home from school - the first thing he noticed was his stick donut was gone!  He started crying and calling Dave the worst dad ever!  We had to explain that we thought he wanted the chocolate iced ones, they aren't very good the day later, and there were other ones left that tasted much better than the stick.  Crisis averted!

Adam wanted to play Minecraft instead of opening presents after that.  He actually waited until after dinner!  The first thing he opened was some Skylanders games for his DS.  He was really excited about it and then just wanted to play that for a bit.  He eventually opened up his other presents and he got a lot of the Skylanders figures (along with some other things).  Dave had gotten a deal on eBay and thought Adam would really like them.  Plus, I think they work with the Wii games so if we ever get it for the Wii...  Adam got upset AGAIN!  He said he got TOO MANY figures! (I think it was along the lines of too many figures when you could have gotten me more things.  Ungrateful little.....) Once again, Dave was the worst Dad ever!  Never mind the Mario Galaxy Wii game he got, the Mario brothers dvds, the Angry Birds Telepods, a bunch of really big boxes to make a new fort, and several other things he had on his list... He even said at one point it was the best day ever!   Dave was pretty upset.  He tries so hard!

Sooo...this morning I told Adam that he made Dave pretty sad last night.  He said, "I know what will help!  I'll give him one of my Imaginex guys!"  I said, "No.  You'll just give him the Lex Luther he gave you that you said you didn't want."  He said, "I'll give him the Millenium Falcon!"  "No.  You don't like/play with that either.  I don't think giving him something  you don't want is the answer."  Then it was time to eat breakfast.  I'll have to work on it more when he gets home....  :(

Future career

(I'll post about the birthday party later)

We were driving around yesterday and passed a building being built and Adam said, "They're framing that building!"  I said something to Dave about how his class is learning about Community and houses and they watched a video of a house being built.  Adam said he already knew what framing was before the video.  I made the off-hand comment of "Oh, we have a future home builder or carpenter on our hands!" 

Later that day... I somehow got Adam to go through his piano books and play the piano.  He was doing really well and then I made the mistake of saying something about keeping his hands in C position.  He said, "It doesn't matter.  I'm not going to be a piano player when I grow up!  I'm going to build houses!"  Ha ha!  I tried to explain hobbies but he was done.

Oh -and now that he's almost 6 - a "What the Hell?!?!?" slipped out of his mouth tonight.  I had to hide behind the newspaper then leave the room so he didn't see me cracking up.  Dave had to tell him it was a bad word.  Asked him where he got it from and said he just knew it.  (I think Dave says it.  I'm more prone to the F-bomb.)

Reading and ramblings

Adam was soo cute tonight.  He wanted to read "One Fish, Two Fish" to me.  That book is like 66 pages!  He was about half way through, yawning and struggling with a couple words so I asked if we could book mark it and finish tomorrow.  He agreed and was sound asleep 2 minutes later!  I cannot believe how well he is reading already!  And that he wants to read to me. So sweet!

Even when I'm on my computer, he's been looking over my shoulder reading what I'm looking up.  Crazy! 

There was a big pep rally at school today.  The kids got to dress down and wear "spirit wear" (something that said Columbus Academy) on top or a maroon or grey top.  I had to scramble yesterday and buy him some new jeans that fit and didn't have holes. The length ended up being OK but even after adjusting the tightners, they were still falling down on him.  He needs some hips!  Anyway...I sent him in his new jeans, a maroon school shirt, and since it was cool this morning - a grey sweatshirt I found in the gently used closet that had a big maroon A with a banner over it that said Vikings.  When I came to pick him up, he was the first kid back to his classroom with his senior buddies.  Apparently Adam did not like how loud it was in the gym and his buddies stayed with him in the hallway.  (Awwww!!)  I asked him if he had everything in his backpack. He said yes and that his sweatshirt was in there because he was told to take it off;  that he wasn't allowed to wear it. Huh?  It was grey and maroon.  Anyway...he then gave me another tour of the school because he forgot to show me some things on Wednesday when I picked him up.  I wish he could give everyone a tour.  He's adorable explaining what everything is...but I'm kind of biased! 

1st Academy birthday party

Adam went to his friend Will's birthday party today.  10am-2pm!  Captain pirate Will had a balloon guy and a face painter, a huge playroom, and (once the rain stopped) a big driveway and nice playground in the back to play on.  Adam REALLY wanted to give Will something (it was a "no gifts please" party) so we brought him a card and Dave drew in and signed a SpongeBob book.  At cake time, Adam really wanted to give Will his card.  I tried to explain that Will would look at the stuff later but Adam found where Will's mom put it and ran to give it to him.  Will made Adam open the envelope for him and then briefly glanced at the card and handed it back - he was busy playing. Adam was a little disappointed but I explained again that this was party time and he seemed OK with it.  A little earlier Will's dad came up to me and said Will had told them that Will had said some not-so-nice-things to Adam the day before.  (Adam had told me that Will said he wasn't invited to the party. When Adam said he got an invitation, Will said it was from a different kid named Will.  I'm assuming this is what his Dad was referring to.)  I told him Adam talks about Will all the time but I lied and said Adam didn't say anything bad happened.  Well, he apologized and said they had a talk with Will about being a good friend, etc, etc and we agreed it was just Kindergartners being Kindergartners.  Later - we were leaving and I told Adam to say goodbye and thank you to Will's mom.  She said you're welcome and then Adam started spewing everything to her - "Will likes to push me and say mean things to me.  I think Will's a bully! ..."   Good for him for having the courage to tell Will's mom when I tried to cover for him with his dad!   She told him she would talk to Will and if he is ever mean again, to tell him his mom said to knock it off.   :)